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Course Descriptions

Completion of 30 units of coursework are required for this degree, including an action research project.

EDUA 516 Instructional and Transformational Leadership - 3 Units
This course combines the important theories of educational leadership with the theories of transformational leadership. This course examines the context of change as it impacts society and its schools; determines leadership qualities and skills necessary for creating successful and enduring change in schools; explores the culture and politics of change as it relates to various members of the school community including administrators, teachers, students, parents, and community leaders; and develops effective strategies for marketing, managing, implementing, and integrating change in three essential areas--teaching, learning, and leadership. This course will provide students with an understanding of school organization and the management and leadership of schools.

EDUA 517 Curriculum Design and Evaluation - 3 units
This course will provide students with an intensive study of pedagogical approaches and materials including state curriculum documents, the curricular recommendations of professional associates, recommendations that have emerged from recent educational research, and the recommendations of recent reform movements. Specific emphasis will be given to the study of alternative approaches to curriculum theory, design, practice, and evaluation.

EDUA 556 Legal and Political Aspects in Education - 3 Units
This course will explore the shaping of education in America by law and the legal system. Many of today’s issues of educational policy are also issues of law: desegregation, the treatment of students with disabilities, English as a second language, religion in the schools, and school finance. Consequently, decisions regarding schools increasingly are being made by the courts. This course provides the educator a basic knowledge of the judicial branch of the government and its impact on education.

EDUA 557 Human Resources - 3 units
This course examines the trends, issues, scope and practices of personnel administration in schools. Personnel management strategies, theories of managing school personnel and addressing the evaluation protocol for classified and certificated personnel will be addressed, along with recruiting, developing, and retaining staff.

EDUA 558 Financial Resources - 3 units
This course examines the trends, issues, scope and practices of school finance. Financial management strategies, techniques for developing a projected budget and strategic plan, Local Control Funding Formula and Local Control Accountability Plan will be addressed.

EDUA 590 Administrative Practicum - 3 units
The first practicum is taken concurrently with the first half of the course work. The goals of the practicum experiences are to foster the development of a positive organizational culture to facilitate and enable various constituencies to contribute to develop and realization of organizational goals. The candidates are provided an opportunity to develop supervisory skills that promote improvement of instruction for all students including those from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The activities are typically conducted at the teacher’s school site. The practicum students and supervisors will meet for monthly meetings to share successes and offer support to colleagues about specific issues that are perhaps creating challenges for the candidate at their school site.

EDUA 591 Advanced Administration Practicum - 3 units
The second practicum is taken concurrently with the second half of the course work and builds upon the accomplishments of the first practicum. During the practicum the administrative candidate completes a professional portfolio and a presentation of this portfolio is made to the instructor, school district mentor and a panel made up of other candidates.

EDUA 593 Saturday Symposium (1 unit each) - 3 Units
EDUA 593 is a series of three one-credit best practices symposia held on various Saturdays throughout the school year. Each symposium presents a new topic on critical issues in education for administrators as presented by distinguished participants in the educational administration field. Students attend three symposia throughout the administration program and complete the required assignment for each.

EDUA 581 Educational Research: Methods and Analysis - 3 Units
This course examines the field of educational research by exploring research methods, analyzing research articles, and applying measurement and statistical techniques to problems of educational research. Students will learn the essentials needed to carry out the entire research process and will develop and implement an action research plan for a school setting.

EDR 605 Collaborative Action Research Project - 3 units
During this course the students enrolled work in collaborative groups and with their faculty advisor to finalize planning, implement the action plan, and write the action research report. An oral presentation upon completion of the project involves a critique of the students’ action research experiences. Prerequisite: EDUA 581.